핀테크의 질주와 금융당국의 경고장: 증권업계가 마주한 두 갈래 길 > K-wave Trends

Toss Securities' actions are the most symbolic example of the current change in the domestic securities industry. Toss Securities, which achieved explosive growth in a short period of time as a brokerage focused on overseas stocks, is now targeting a new customer group called the 4050 generation by launching a pension savings account in the second half of the year. This is a strategic move to go beyond simple product additions and evolve from a profit structure centered on one-time transactions to a comprehensive wealth management (WM) platform where customer assets are stored for a long period of time. Fintech competitors such as Kakao Pay Securities are already solidifying their position in the pension and ISA market, so their battle to attract customers using mobile user environment (UI/UX) as a weapon is expected to intensify. However, the fact that large securities companies are already dominating the market based on reserves worth trillions of won is a high barrier that Toss Securities must overcome.

On the other hand, in contrast to this aggressive trend of market expansion, the Financial Supervisory Service is sending a very sharp warning about the business behavior of the securities industry. Recently, as volatility in domestic and foreign stock markets and foreign exchange markets became extreme, the Financial Supervisory Service urgently convened auditors from 12 major securities companies, held an 'internal audit meeting', and expressed its will to conduct intensive crackdowns. In particular, the Financial Supervisory Service defined overheated marketing that recommends high-risk products solely for profitability or induces funds to be concentrated in specific stocks and transactions as 'irresponsible sales behavior.' This is a result that reflects the authorities' deep concern that individual investors may be unprotectedly exposed to foreign exchange risk or the risks of leveraged products ahead of large-scale issues such as the listing of SpaceX. The authorities have made clear their zero-tolerance principle that going forward, they will never tolerate cases where securities firms exploit investor expectations for short-term performance.

The guidelines presented by the financial authorities go beyond simply refraining from marketing and contain a message to fundamentally reexamine the company-wide internal control system of securities firms. The Financial Supervisory Service requested that investor protection items be effectively reflected in key performance indicators (KPIs) and that a system be established to review potential violations of laws in advance from the event or advertising planning stage. In addition, when selecting an overseas local broker, we ordered strengthening of practical management, such as evaluating financial soundness and business sustainability and rationalizing the procedure for calculating foreign currency deposit usage fee rates. In particular, in the case of overseas stocks, it was emphasized to monitor excessive trading at the same level as domestic stocks and to strengthen the warning notification function for excessive loss accounts. These requirements will be delivered directly to the management of securities companies through a CEO letter, which suggests that internal control is an essential management task, not an option.

Meanwhile, the case of Woori Investment & Securities clearly demonstrates the struggles of the traditional securities industry model through capital expansion. While fintech securities companies generate profits through innovative services and customer contact points, Woori Investment & Securities is running a long-term race to become a comprehensive financial investment business (investment company) based on the strong capital power of financial holding companies. Although the company is increasing its capital by issuing a paid-in capital increase worth more than KRW 1 trillion, it still appears that it will take a lot of hard work to close the gap with the very large IBs that have already dominated the market. Due to the nature of the securities industry, where the size of capital is the limit of business, late entrants are in dire need of a differentiation strategy that maximizes capital efficiency while at the same time utilizing the holding company's corporate finance network. In the end, securities companies were faced with the task of finding their own survival solutions in a changing regulatory environment, armed with their own weapons of capital size and platform competitiveness.